K-O e-NEWS

JANUARY 19, 2012 

 UCC POLITY COURSE 

  YOU ARE INVITED

 Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 3pm

The Oklahoma Association of the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference of the United Church of Christ and the Cathedral of Hope, Oklahoma City United Church of Christ congregation invite you to a worship service in celebration and recognition of the ordination into the Christian ministry of Benjy Files.

The service will be at Church of the Open Arms, UCC located at 3131 North Pennsylvania, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Clergy are invited to robe with red or rainbow stoles and join in the procession.

Reception to follow in the Church Hall

For more information, contact Rev. Matthew Perkins at 405-788-1944

  International Orthodox Christian Charities
Recruiting Volunteers For 2012 Orthodox Action Teams   

Greetings friends,

The UCC and IOCC work as partners in long term disaster recovery in the United States.  As a result of two disasters in the year 2011 (Houston, TX and Minneapolis, MN), the IOCC is assisting these communities to rebuild/repair damaged homes.   

Since the devastating hurricanes in 2005, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) has provided over 600 volunteers and thousands of man-hours to help surviving families along the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives by constructing new homes or doing critical renovations to existing ones. Working in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, IOCC expanded its efforts last year by sending Orthodox Action Teams to build homes in Houston.

For 2012, IOCC will extend its humanitarian reach with more home construction and restoration projects set for Houston and for Minneapolis, which suffered a destructive tornado last summer. IOCC is currently recruiting volunteers for one week of active service in Houston or Minneapolis. You do not need to be skilled - just energetic! Activities vary depending on location and construction schedules, but can include siding, roofing, framing, landscaping, painting and support.   

IOCC invites US and Canadian residents to participate in this life-changing experience. The volunteer contribution is $450 per person, which includes local transportation, room & board, materials, supplies, tools and site supervision. Volunteers must be 18 years of age or older, but volunteers over the age of 16 may participate if they are accompanied by a parent, legal guardian or an adult with a power-of-attorney to act on their behalf for the duration of the deployment. Individuals (or groups) are responsible to travel to the build city on their own, but ground transportation will be provided from the local airport(s) to the housing site. Teams arrive on Sunday afternoons and depart on Saturday afternoon.

Please consider becoming a part of this growing network of good and helping your brothers and sisters in Christ who need your support.    

To volunteer, please fill out and submit the online form at www.iocc.org/actionteam. For specific questions, please contact the US Programs Department of IOCC at 1-877-803-IOCC or by e-mail to dchristopulos@iocc.org.

Friends,

The United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) are partnering with the  Joplin Long Term Recovery Committee to work at repairing homes damaged by the May 2011 tornadoes.  Below is the link to the UCC Volunteer Ministries web site where groups may register.  Please share this information throughout your Conference.

The United Church of Christ, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Joplin Long Term Recovery Committee are partnering to make this opportunity possible. You can use the link http://www.ucc.org/volunteer/disaster-recovery-volunteers/ to register your group.   This location joins opportunities to serve in disaster recovery in Birmingham, Alabama during 2012 and anticipated communities that will be ready to receive groups in Vermont, North Dakota, and elsewhere during the coming year.  Your national staff continues to be in close contact with local communities and their Long Term Recovery Committees.

Thank you for accompanying people during these times of long term disaster recovery.  God's love is made real in the world during this season and throughout the year.

YEARBOOK DATA

Every year the United Church of Christ asks each of its local congregations to send in statistical information about its membership and finances.  This data is then compiled and published in an annual UCC Yearbook.  This information is crucial in tracking trends and patterns in our United Church of Christ churches which help the conferences and wider churches be more responsive and effective in their ministries.  Each local church should have received the forms and their instructions in the mail-please be on the look-out for them and make sure they get to the right person to fill out.  You can choose to fill out the forms with a tried and true pen/pencil or you can choose to fill out the forms electronically.  Instructions will be included for whichever procedure works best for you.   

The deadline for completing the forms is February 8.

Just to whet your whistle, here's some statistics that we have learned because churches sent in their yearbook data:

*As of December 31,2010, there were 5227 churches and 1,058,423 members in the 38 Conferences.  

*Average church size in the UCC is 210 members. 

*There are 16 churches with more than 2,000 members.  

*64% of churches have less than 200 members. 

*More than 1900 churches have less than 100 on average in their worship services. 

*Over 88% of churches contribute to Our Churches Wider Mission (OCWM)

JANUARY 30 - FEBRUARY 1, 2012

CLERGY RETREAT

JANUARY 30 -   Governor Call-In Day

Ladies - get out your calendars!   

Looking ahead in 2012, the following dates should be noted:

FEBRUARY -- Winter Issue of COMMON LOT will present worship materials and daily devotionals for the 2012 WOMEN'S DAY/ WOMEN'S WEEK, which will officially be Sunday, FEBRUARY 5 and FEB. 5-11, 2012. (Materials may be used for any women's worship service.)  Adding a dedication of an annual gathering of women's "Blessing Box Offerings" is a possibility, too.

Please remember to remain in covenant with UCC Women in Ministry through contributions to UCCWM ($34) which bring quarterly COMMON LOT publications as well as the Ecumenical BIBLE Study (spring issue).  Send to:  Local Church Ministries  (UCCW), 700 Prospect Ave E,  Cleveland OH 44115-1100.

Friday, MARCH 2nd, will be the date for World Day of Prayer. "Let Justice Prevail," written by Christian women of Malaysia is a resource available for you.  Materials may be ordered from WDP USA by calling 888.937.8720.

Saturday, APRIL 21st - SPRING CELEBRATION

Central Association Women will host a one-day event for

ALL women of K-O at Trinity United in Cheney, KS.

Fri-Sat-Sun,  AUGUST 17-18-19th - K-O WOMEN'S ASSEMBLY at White Memorial Camp.

All women in KO are encouraged to attend all or part of this retreat session to gain information about women's ministries, learn in Bible study and worship, and enjoy fellowship with other UCC women and explore the church camp grounds while enjoying personal meditation time.

RURAL MINISTRY CONFERENCE 

Wartburg Theological Seminary's 31st Annual Rural Ministry Conference is being held on March 4th - 6th, 2012. This year's focus is "Courage in a Caring Community." The Rural Ministry Conference outreach is continuing to grow and has become an ecumenical conference for those working in small town and rural parishes throughout the Midwest.

We would appreciate it very much if you could put an announcement in your newsletter regarding the Rural Ministry Conference. Attached is a brochure describing this year's conference speakers and the workshops which will be presented. Participants can also view the information and register online at www.ruralministry.com . If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for your time and consideration of this request.

Donna Runge

Assistant to the Director

Center for Theology and Land

K-O PRAYER CALENDAR 

THANK YOU 

Link to

the K-0

Calendar 

January 30 - February 1, 2012 - Clergy Retreat  

K-O Conference Council Meetings

January 22 ~ Federated Church of Weatherford, OK for morning worship

January 22 ~ Service of Ordination into the Christian Ministry for Benjy Files at Church of Open Arms, Oklahoma City, OK

January 30-February 1  ~ K-O Clergy Retreat

Krista would be happy to visit your congregation.  Call her  at 316-686-4331 to schedule a date.

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